Cladding & Insulation

Since the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, Fuel Poverty Action has been working on the issue of Cladding and Insulation. Since then, the government has promised to “fully fund” the replacement of cladding in social housing blocks which is a great step forwards, but there’s still a huge amount of work to be done. For this reason we’ve worded a new open letter to the Secretary of State, to be delivered later this year. You can read (and sign) the letter here.

The work to replace the cladding is being monitored in the governments ‘Building Safety Programme’. They’re publishing monthly updates on the progress of the program here – the headline figures from September 2018 are:

Number of buildings not meeting current building regulations: 468

Number of these that are social sector buildings: 159

Number of social sector buildings where remediation work has finished: 22

Number of social sector buildings where remediation work has started: 99 (70%)

The remaining 38 have ‘plans in place for remediation’

On this page you can find a summary of all the work we’ve done on this topic, as well as links to pieces that have been written about it in the media.

Cladding: A National Emergency – FPA Briefing

This briefing brings together all of the research we’ve done on cladding, covering the following topics:

The scale of the cladding crisis

How many buildings currently fail to meet building safety regulations regulations. Case studies of buildings that have had cladding removed post Grenfell.

Illness and death caused by unsafe buildings (from cold and fire)

A timeline of building regulation changes leading up to Grenfell

Private interests over public safety – details of companies profiting from unsafe housing

What the government is (and isn’t) doing post Grenfell

Conclusion and demands by residents and Fuel Poverty Action

Quotes from public figures and residents living in affected housing.

You can read the full report in the research section of our site, or download a PDF file (recommended) here.

Public Meeting on housing safety post Grenfell

On January 18th 2018, Fuel Poverty Action hosted an evening of discussion about the cold, fear and poor living conditions faced by residents of many housing estates in the wake of Grenfell. You can read the full report of the discussions that took place in the meeting here.

Ruth from FPA speaking about winter deaths and cladding on the BBC

Resources from around the web

Whilst researching this topic, we’ve found a number of invaluable news articles, government reports and blog posts. The ones we found particularly useful are included below. We aim to keep this document up to date with any new things that we find.

What can I do?

The best time to get cladding replaced is now, before next winter!

Promote the campaign: Share the Petition, the Video, and the Demands.

If you are directly affected by these issues, get in touch!

Donate: Fuel Poverty Action is unfunded. A donation from last year has sustained us but will shortly run out. If you want the campaign to continue, for protection from fire and cold, please donate here- with a button.

FPA also want your help with organising this campaign. Please get in touch! We need help with: